As I watched the students go through the True Love Waits Ceremony Sunday night I was blessed to witness their bold courage and excited to see what God was doing through them, and that got me thinking this morning…

Those thirteen students didn’t get on that stage by accident; they didn’t just stumble in on Sunday night and say, “Hey, I think I’ll do this purity thing tonight.” No, they got there through intentional work on their part, their parents and their church. The general principle holds true: people don’t get where they are without intentional work. Godly kids don’t raise themselves, bills don’t magically get paid by the bill paying fairy, beautiful yards take long weekends of hard work, socks don’t fold themselves, and churches don’t grow just because they’re, well, there.

Everything in life takes hard work: jobs, yards, relationships, churches and disciples. Remember what Jesus said to those first disciples? He told them to “make disciples”; He didn’t tell them to build a building and then sit back and wait for people to show up. The “Field of Dreams” philosophy of building a church is not biblical (“build it and they will come”). That is the church building strategy of the lazy person.

Some people are under the impression that building a building equals building a church. I wish it were that easy. Building a church takes hard work. We are promised that God will do His part (“upon this rock I will build my church” [Matthew 16:18]). But what about our part; what work are we supposed to do? Please read on.

We must begin by consistently praying for ourselves and others that we might impact the world for eternity right now. Pray for boldness and opportunity; pray for clarity and reception; pray for God’s Spirit to use God’s Word to birth God’s children.

This will also involve us getting the gospel into our hearts so that we can pour it out into other people’s lives. We need to be intentional about reading, studying, and hiding God’s Word in our hearts. It’s can’t be about a program or memorizing a plan. It must become about an every day relationship with the God of creation. What He puts into our hearts on any given day will be exactly what we need to give as an answer for our hope to those who ask (1 Peter 3:15).

Certainly making disciples involves intentionally building meaningful relationships where God has strategically placed us. We just need to allow God to use where He has providentially planted us in this world to reach people with the gospel.

Finally, we need a courageous boldness to share with those people how God radically changed our lives and how that same God can change theirs as well. We don’t need to have all the answers, but we do need to have all the love to share the most beautiful news we’ve ever heard.

Grace & Peace,